In today’s Wall Street Journal Don Boudreaux and Mark Perry debunk the popular myth that America’s middle-class has suffered a stagnant existence over the past 30+ years. Don highlights the article here at Cafehayek. In his closing paragraph (below) he fingers precisely why today’s “progressives” would prefer to paint middle-income Americans as victims rather than exploit the truth of their advancement:
But to so celebrate the continuing improvement in the economic well-being of America’s middle-class (and America’s poor, btw) would be to suggest that yet further increases in the intensity, reach, and discretion of Uncle Sam’s power might not be so urgently needed after all. Any such recognition of the continued improvement, at least until recently, of the economic well-being of middle-class Americans might scratch the itch that, when left unscratched, prompts so many people to yearn to be led to some imaginary (and always rather gauzily understood) promised land by secular saviors – charlatans whose theatrics and flowery, if largely empty, speeches so impress and enchant “Progressives.”
And here are three of my own contributions to the topic:
The Real Truth About the Economy (borrowing from Don here as well)